Technical Field
The present invention relates to graphical interfaces and, more particularly, to graphical user interfaces for displaying time-series data with hierarchical relationships.
Description of the Related Art
Waste management is a hallmark of civilization, and as cities grow larger, the amount of waste involved grows proportionally. Managing waste better means building an understanding of the relationships between different kinds of waste and how they are generated over time.
In one example, a materials recovery facility (MRF) is a facility where solid waste and recyclables are sorted to recover materials. The number of MRFs in the United States has grown, from 40 in 1991 to 736 in 2012. As waste comes into a MRF, the administration of the MRF depends on having an accurate picture of what types of waste are being processed and how to manage them.
One exemplary scenario includes a city that has a diversion rate of 19%, compared to the United States average of 34%, measuring the amount of waste that is diverted from landfills. This city aims to increase its diversion rates in the first year of the program to 55% and to 75% after two years. In this system, waste is sorted at a central facility, where finished goods using the recycled materials are produced on-site. The volume of different materials are tracked and analyzed to enhance waste use. However, to be a useful member of the local economy, the MRF will need to provide accurate projections of their output, just like new production provides.
Existing techniques for visualizing materials' time-series data attempt to categorize the material, but their presentation of the information is difficult to understand and can necessitate a very large amount of space dedicated to the visualization to properly display all of the information.